Trees in Hanoi

Diashow Veronika Radulovic 'Familiar Surroundings’, Hanoi, 2004

Thanks to the wealth and variety of green in the city, Hanoi has an advantage over most other major Asian cities. Old and mighty trees, which often have an even greater effect due to their impressive aerial roots, stand in the courtyards of the pagodas, in the narrow alleys of the old town, along the boulevards built during the colonial period, in parks and along the banks of the many inner-city waterways. The green giants are deeply rooted in this unique urban landscape.

Their dark green colour makes a significant contribution to the special atmosphere of the city; their mighty tops provide shade, absorb dust, decontaminate the air and muffle the noise of the incessant streams of bicycles. For the inhabitants the trees are a natural part of life. They are respected, protected and looked after, often also worshiped in pagodas and temples and sung about in countless songs. Although large fines are imposed if they are cut down without permission, these green areas of the city are still in danger. Many trees are ill. The summer typhoons break more and more large branches or completely snap the trunks of the weakened giants. Air pollution as a result of the boom in motorized transport, groundwater contamination and soil sealing cause them a great deal of trouble. They are often improperly treated. And if a tree dies, another is often planted without taking the old diversity of species into consideration.

It is seldom that cultural, aesthetic and ecological features and elements of town planning and town conservation, i.e. traditional development policy aspects, are so directly interwoven that an interdisciplinary approach is virtually unavoidable. A joint venture was thus set up, which brought town planners, municipal gardeners, politicians and architects together with sociologists, cultural scientists and above all a large number of artists. The tree project was supported by the Goethe-Institut Hanoi along with various partners in Vietnam, and implemented with funds from the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Its success lay in the interweaving of practical and technical aspects of the care and maintenance of city trees (explained by the tree specialist Dr. Clemens Heidger from Hanover), in the comparative cultural and historical appreciation of the topic in European and Asian mythology and literature and finally in the objectification of the tree in the form of artistic works. A total of 20 Vietnamese artists and ten artists from four European countries, Canada and the USA participated. They approached the subject using photography, video, painting and art installations. The works could be seen over a period of weeks in several individual exhibitions at the Goethe-Institut and in a large concluding show at the Hanoi College of Fine Arts.

Apart from the artistic value of these presentations, the organizers wanted above all to give the subject its own form of visibility and sensory clarity that had an effect on people well beyond the group of specialists involved. Not only from the artists’ perspective was the artistic examination incorporated in a broader theoretical reflection of the topic. It also drew the attention of the general public and the media in a way that conventional projects in the field of development cooperation generally find hard to achieve. A whole series of newspaper articles and television programmes dealt with the subject. The municipal specialists saw that their otherwise hardly noticed efforts to protect the threatened trees were being recognized and appreciated. And on the other hand there was exceptional public awareness of the fact that the problem of maintaining the trees was an ecological and landscaping concern for all city dwellers.

The ecological campaign could thus tie in with the culturally rooted respect for the trees as friends and protectors of the people. The wider perspective was also always present, stretching beyond the green areas of the city into the threatened and neglected forests of the countryside. This was where the cultural and aesthetic point of view most obviously combined with the technical and practical approach of development cooperation. Large reforestation programmes and measures to maintain the remaining forest areas are an important focus of German development aid in Vietnam.